


Snowed In

by DragonSorceress22



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Established Relationship, M/M, Magic Tricks, Makeouts, Mystery, One Shot, Winter, so I did as I bloody well pleased, the layout of the Kudou house is as inconsistent and convoluted as the DCMK timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 04:46:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11268237
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonSorceress22/pseuds/DragonSorceress22
Summary: Shinichi and Kaito are exceptionally bad at quiet nights at home.





	Snowed In

**Author's Note:**

> In the grand tradition of being mean to Kaito on his birthday :3 (Also in the (less) grand tradition of me only ever positing winter-fic off season.)
> 
> Beta'd, as usual, by the diligent [solomonara](http://archiveofourown.org/users/solomonara/pseuds/solomonara/works)!

It was the middle of the night, the wind howling through every crevice it could find, and Shinichi couldn’t sleep. Not that he was expecting to. He’d been up at all hours for the past week and a half working a serial killer case and his sleep schedule was a disaster.

Still, he was at least trying. He’d settled onto the couch in his pajamas with a mug of milk and was about to put on some awful late-night TV when Kaito bounded into the room, placing himself between Shinichi and the screen.

“Shinichi~” he purred. “Help me practice my new trick.”

“What, like an assistant?” Shinichi asked, rather willingly tossing the remote onto the cushions.

Kaito shook his head. “No, like the impossible critic of an audience member that you are.”

“…Is this how you ask someone for a favor?”

“Come on,” Kaito insisted. “I wanna see if I’ve really got this one down, and you’re the only one who can see through my tricks.”

Shinichi crossed his legs and took a sip from his mug. “That’s more like it,” he murmured with a smile.

Kaito grinned. “Okay, ready?” He pulled one of the armchairs up to the coffee table across from Shinichi and sat on the edge of the seat. Then he laid his palm flat on the table. “Three, two, one!” He lifted his hand and a series of playing cards fell from it, stacking neatly on the table. Then he scooped them up. “Now…” There was a crisp flutter from the cards as Kaito shuffled them, then sent them arching through the air from one hand to the other. But they never arrived. They just disappeared.

Shinichi blinked, slightly dumbfounded, but Kaito’s hands were still moving so he didn’t have much time for thought.

“So far so good?” Kaito asked with a smirk, and the cards reappeared in a trail following his hand as he slid it across the surface of the coffee table. When he reached the end he flicked the last card, turning each one over in a clean domino effect, then scooped them up into a stack once again. As he moved to tap the deck against the table they promptly vanished and his empty hand landed flat on the wood. He settled back in the chair.

“Well?” Kaito asked, wiggling empty fingers at Shinichi. The ace of hearts flicked up into his hand from nowhere and he winked. “What do you think?”

Shinichi opened his mouth then closed it again. He gave Kaito an appraising glance then set his mug on the table and said, “Come over here.”

The ace vanished in a blink and Kaito hopped to his feet to stroll around the coffee table. Shinichi stood to meet him and immediately grabbed for Kaito’s hips, checking for pockets in the pajama pants.

“Hey!” Kaito laughed. “Cheating!” But he also spread his arms and allowed Shinichi to continue his methodical patting and poking. When Shinichi, finding nothing, resorted to pushing his hands up under Kaito’s T-shirt, Kaito stopped him. “Shinichi!” he said through another laugh, and he pulled him in, wrapping his arms around him so that Shinichi’s were trapped between them.

“How did you do it?” Shinichi asked. “Is it an optical illusion or a cognitive one? Tell me it’s not a gimmick, I hate those.”

“I’m not gonna tell you _anything_ ~!”

“Then I’m just gonna have to keep searching,” Shinichi said and he wriggled his hands down to sneak them under the hem of Kaito’s shirt again. Then one of them slid against Kaito’s hip, slipping just past the waistband of his pajama pants, and Kaito abruptly toppled Shinichi onto the couch. He pinned him there with a kiss that was insistent enough to make Shinichi forget to wonder what had become of the TV remote.

After a long, breathless minute Kaito managed to get onto his hands and knees, crouching over Shinichi instead of lying on him, but he kept dipping down to snatch brief little kisses. Shinichi was making soft noises against Kaito’s lips, rising up each time Kaito teasingly pulled away, but no matter what he did Kaito was keeping these kisses chaste, not letting Shinichi deepen them even though he tried. Then Kaito sat on Shinichi’s legs and slid his hands under Shinichi’s shirt, dragging it over his head and onto the floor.

The moment the shirt was out of the way he was kissing at him again, but still only teasing. He did allow Shinichi to pull his own shirt off though, laughing at the clumsy fistfuls of fabric and the static that gathered in his hair when Shinichi finally managed to tug it over Kaito’s head. And when it was off Shinichi tried even harder to pull Kaito down with no more success than before.

Shinichi let out a growl of frustration and brought his knee up, pressing carefully between Kaito’s legs, and Kaito folded a little with a faint, needy sound. It brought him more fully into Shinichi’s reach and Shinichi dragged him the rest of the way down. He thought he could feel little snaps of static between his fingers as he pushed them though Kaito’s hair, holding his head down so he could latch onto his lips and finally work them open. Kaito’s tongue met his then and he laughed a little around it.

It took a while but eventually Kaito’s weight pressing down on top of Shinichi was more distracting than the kisses and Shinichi pushed him back, panting. “I can’t feel my legs,” he laughed, and Kaito shifted a little to get back onto his hands and knees.

“I’m not really sorry,” he murmured, and then he was ducking down again to worry the side of Shinichi’s neck with his teeth. He shifted again to move one of his knees between Shinichi’s legs and pushed up, rubbing gently. Shinichi immediately leaned in, wrapping his arms around Kaito’s shoulders with one hand in his hair again as he pushed down against Kaito’s knee, breathy pants starting to turn to little moans. Kaito grinned and pressed a few kisses to Shinichi’s neck as his hand wandered to Shinichi’s hip, dipping just under his pants.

That was when the power cut out, the lights fading with a whine and the vents going silent. Shinichi and Kaito both went still and all that was left in the pitch black were Shinichi’s residual panting breaths and the howl of the wind outside.

“Hm,” Kaito murmured, and that was the most acknowledgement he gave after his initial moment of surprise. He went right back to feeling his way across Shinichi’s body in the dark.

Shinichi grabbed his hands. “Kaito, we need to see if a breaker got tripped.”

“What for?” Kaito said, finding the edge of Shinichi’s jaw with his lips and kissing across it, following it to Shinichi’s pulse. Shinichi made a half impatient, half at-Kaito’s-mercy sound and released Kaito’s hands so he could push at his chest. If those hands lingered after he was finally able to sit up, neither commented.

“Because if that’s all it is, we can go turn the power back on and everything’s fine. But if it’s not…”

“What…?” Kaito prompted, though distantly. He was only half listening, his hands all over Shinichi’s skin.

“Kaito,” Shinichi said firmly. “It’s pitch dark and it’s gonna get really cold. Now’s not the time.”

His tone finally stopped Kaito. He’d clearly made up his mind and, well, he did have a point. “Yeah, okay. You’re right.” Kaito backed carefully off of Shinichi but caught hold of his hands, helping him to his feet. Then he pawed around for their shirts and handed one to Shinichi, tugging the other on himself. “All right. Let’s go check it out.”

 

Both the flashlights and the breaker box were in the laundry room near the back of the house but they made it there easily with Kaito leading the way by phone light. Unfortunately, it didn’t do them much good.

“Everything looks fine here,” Kaito sighed, hopping up to sit on the dryer. He poked at his phone a bit then turned it to show Shinichi. “Looks like the storm knocked out the power in your whole area. We’ll have to wait for the city to fix it.”

Shinichi leaned against the washer. “At least the professor’s away at a conference. Haibara wanted to go with him but Ayumi wouldn’t hear of it. She said that Haibara shouldn’t have to miss school to sit around at something as boring as a science convention, so she’s staying at her place this week.”

“Ouch,” Kaito laughed. Then he shrugged. “Okay, so what should _we_ do? Wait it out?”

“I think we’ll have to. It sounds pretty bad out there. I don’t know if we’d be able to make it out to your place, or even to Ran’s.”

Kaito hopped off of the dryer. “All right then. Let’s get a fire going.”

“Ha. Yeah right. Come on, we’ve got extra blankets in the guest room closets upstairs. We can probably sleep through the worst of it.” He was already heading out of the laundry room, flashlight pointed at the floor ahead of him, but Kaito reached out and caught his arm.

“No, seriously, why can’t we get a fire going? That would be way warmer. We can just pull the couch up and sleep there.”

Shinichi glanced back at him, his face a shadowy mixture of bemused and worried. “Arson is illegal, Kaito,” he said slowly. “And I like my house.”

“It’s not arson if it’s in a _fireplace_ , Shinichi! Geez, do I really need to be the logical one here?”

Shinichi finally turned back to him. “Where is there a fireplace in here?”

That got Kaito to pause. His eyes went wide and unseeing as he ran through a mental map of the house. “Shinichi…” he said slowly. “If there aren’t any fireplaces, why does this house have two chimneys?”

Shinichi’s mouth opened. Nothing came out.

 

“Can we go back to the ‘cuddling under piles of blankets in your bed’ plan?” Kaito whined as Shinichi tugged on another layer of socks. They were both bundled into winter coats, hats, scarves, and gloves, but Kaito was still shivering. Shinichi pretended not to notice.

“No way. There’s something going on here and I’m gonna find out what.” His eyes were flashing, his face pink from cold and excitement, and he wiped his nose on his sleeve. “You can sleep if you want.”

“Alone? No way. I think my odds of survival are better if I move around.”

Shinichi rolled his eyes. “It’s not _that_ cold, Kaito.”

“Yeah, well don’t think I’m gonna get out on the roof to help you with this mystery nonsense. Can’t this wait until spring? I’m sure the magical chimney secret isn’t going anywhere.”

“Are you kidding?” Shinichi laughed. He scooped up his flashlight and headed for the stairs. “I’ll never be able to sleep until I know what those chimneys are all about.”

 

The two chimneys were equidistant from the front and back of the house and they flanked the central wing – the only section that reached up past the second floor.

“It’s got to be up here, right?” Shinichi said, taking the stairs two at a time up to a normally cozy sitting room. Outside, the wind beat against the bay window, whipping snow past the dark glass.

“Does it?” Kaito muttered and he was alarmed when it came out in a little cloud of white. He shivered again and let out a miserable whine. “You know, you’re gonna feel really silly when it turns out those chimneys are just furnace vents or something.”

“Two of them?” Shinichi replied, but he was only barely listening, distracted as he flipped back rugs, pressed at floorboards, and knocked on walls on his hands and knees.

“It’s a big house, Shinichi.”

That didn’t get any response at all while Shinichi continued to poke and prod. Eventually he asked without pausing, “Are you just here to watch?”

“Yeah, _kinda_ ,” Kaito said. “Like hell I’m gonna let you fall through some trapdoor and vanish on me.”

“That was _one time_ ,” Shinichi groaned. “And you weren’t even there!”

“…Wait, what?”

“Never mind. Just help me look.”

“Okay,” Kaito sighed. He crouched down and started following Shinichi’s movements with his flashlight. “But what are we looking for?”

“You just said. There’s got to be a trapdoor or something.”

“But _why_?”

“Because there’s no way my dad’s not behind this and that’s just the sort of thing he would do.”

“In that case, shouldn’t we be measuring the dimensions of the house?” Kaito asked. “You can’t hide a room if there’s no space to hide it in.”

Shinichi shook his head. “What if there’s a secret basement? Besides, it’s too dark for that right now.”

“And too cold,” Kaito pouted. “Come on, Shinichi, this would be much easier in the morning. Maybe the power will be back on.”

Shinichi let out a foggy sigh. “Okay. Okay, just… give me ten more minutes. I know I can figure this out.” He sat on the floor and folded his legs, a gloved hand coming to rest at his chin. Kaito crawled over and pushed his way into Shinichi’s lap, curling up on the floor with his head on Shinichi’s thigh. Shinichi’s other hand settled onto Kaito’s shoulder but he otherwise didn’t acknowledge him, lost in thought.

“The chimney on the left… is taller,” he eventually muttered. It was a little frustrating. He could picture them clearly – they’d been there all his life but he’d never _realized_ …

“Hm?” Kaito murmured.

“They’re staggered,” Shinichi said. “If those chimneys serve no purpose other than to act as a clue, that has to be significant.”

“Are there any decorations in the house that mimic the shape?” Kaito yawned. “Artwork and decorative detailing are easy ways to disguise levers and switches.”

“No,” Shinichi answered. “Nothing like that but… what about the house itself? This section in the middle is a half step up from the rest of the house.”

“So we’re in the right place. You already figured on that though.”

“Right. Framing it was enough to indicate the middle wing, so what do the different heights mean?”

“Well, the taller one draws more attention, but it needs the other chimney as a comparison to be considered ‘taller’ in the first place. They’re a set.”

“A set…” Shinichi repeated.

“And if we’re supposed to take them together, is it a right to left thing or a left to right thing? Are they going up or down?”

“…What?”

“You know, does it go low to high or high to low–”

“No, what you said before. Up or down…” Shinichi was already moving to get to his feet, his mind completely gone to the mystery. Fortunately, Kaito was quick enough to make up for that. He rolled off of Shinichi and they made it to their feet at the same time. “It’s the stairs!” Shinichi said. “They’re pointing to the stairs up to this room!” He took off at a run and Kaito ran after him without a thought, their two flashlight beams leading the way. Shinichi was like a force of nature when things came together for him and Kaito didn’t intend to miss it.

Shinichi rushed down the stairs and spun around at the bottom, pointing his light back up. “Okay. The taller chimney’s on this side,” he said, putting his hand on the wall to his right. “And it _does_ call more attention so it could be over here…”

“But…” Kaito passed his light slowly over the railing on the opposite side. “It’s the posts under the banister that mimic the staggered heights of the chimneys. So those are a lot more likely, right?”

Shinichi’s grin flashed in the dark, his eyes finally focusing on Kaito for the first time since the mystery had taken him. “Exactly,” he said, and Kaito was a little underprepared for the amount of raw attraction Shinichi’s gaze held in that moment.

Kaito swallowed and looked away again, back toward the stairs. “Okay, so, time to start poking?”

“Yep!”

 

The stairway was not large. The central wing was only a half floor up from the second floor landing and Shinichi knew immediately when his hand met the right post, just shy of halfway up.

“Kaito,” he said, but Kaito was already crouched close.

“This one?”

Shinichi nodded. “It twists but also catches. I’m thinking…” He reached one post up and twisted that one too.

The two stairs folded under them with no warning and they both dropped with breathless gasps down a steep, smooth incline, cold air rushing past their faces. When they reached the bottom Shinichi sprawled forcefully against the graceful crouch Kaito had managed and they both pitched forward, landing facedown in a heap.

“Oof,” Kaito muttered, mostly for effect. “That was fun.”

“Better if we’d been prepared for it, probably.” Shinichi felt around for the floor and removed himself from on top of Kaito. Their flashlights had made the trip intact, though Shinichi had lost hold of his. He grabbed for it and pointed it up to find the ceiling before standing. “Called it. Secret basement.”

“Feels kind of familiar,” Kaito said with a smirk.

Then they both fell quiet, drawing in toward each other as something outside of their lights’ reach rumbled to life. After a few choking stutters a steady whir kicked in and rows of lights flickered on across the ceiling. Shinichi and Kaito both flinched and Shinichi covered his eyes.

“What happened? Is the power back on?”

“No.” Kaito was already blinking the discomfort of abrupt light away and scanning the large room. “It’s a generator. Ooh! And a space heater!” Kaito snatched Shinichi’s hand and tugged him forward and Shinichi gave up on shading his eyes. There was indeed a large space heater standing between a tall cabinet and a clunky generator against the back wall of the room. Kaito dropped to his knees beside it and pulled its cord over to an outlet strip trailing from the generator. It kicked on silently with the smell of burning dust and Kaito practically melted into a puddle of delight on the floor.

Shinichi smiled a little and bent down to press a kiss to Kaito’s forehead just under his knit cap. Then he got up and started wandering around the room, shoving his flashlight into his coat pocket.

Most of the space was empty and open except for a few support columns here and there. On the same wall as the apparent slide that had spat them out was a dark stairwell. Those two openings took up most of that wall. Shinichi put his back to the slide. Scattered along the long wall to his left were a few old armchairs and a few rolled futons. The wall to the right had a simple writing desk pushed up against the middle of it, flanked on both sides by rows of filing cabinets. He went for the cabinets immediately but every one was locked.

Shinichi let out a huff and moved to the desk, pulling out all of the drawers, but they contained nothing but pens and blank stacks of manuscript paper. He shoved them closed again and dropped into the chair. Only then did he focus on the single item resting on top of the desk – an old portable cassette player with a notecard resting on it that read “For Shinichi” in his father’s handwriting. He blew off the dust and pressed play.

Kaito sat up at the crackle of sound from the player. The first few seconds of the tape were garbled and warped, words like “Shinichi” and “found” coming through but not much else. By the time Kaito had dragged himself away from the heat to stand behind Shinichi’s chair, the sound had cleared up.

 _“My reasons for this room are twofold–”_ Yusaku’s voice said, but then Yukiko cut in, sounding somewhat distant.

_“You just wanted to build one because they’re cool and Toichi-sensei has one.”_

Shinichi glanced over his shoulder to share a raised-eyebrow look with Kaito.

 _“…My reasons for this room are threefold,”_ Yusaku continued. _“First, secret rooms are very cool. But more importantly, Shinichi, you should know that Toichi and I have been researching a dangerous crime syndicate that has been active in Japan lately. Trying to collect evidence on them is risky business, so this room is where we hide all that we’ve gathered. It’s also here in case we need to disappear quickly._

_“As for this recording, I hope you never have to hear it. But it’s possible what Toichi and I are doing could end in both of us being killed. I want you to know the truth, Shinichi. And if I’m not around, know that you can trust the Kurobas. Toichi is also making a recording for his son, Kaito-kun, just in case. You can rely on each other.”_

The tape petered out to static and Shinichi pressed stop. For a heavy few seconds he and Kaito just stared down at the player.

A shiver ran through Kaito that, for once, had little to do with the cold. He rubbed at his arms anyway and moved toward the filing cabinet just left of the desk.

“So this is your dad’s version of the KID room, huh?” He was eyeing the keyholes that sat at eye level above the top drawer of each cabinet. “How ‘bout we pop these open and see what’s inside?”

“I know where the key is,” Shinichi said. He shoved to his feet and his gloves left streaks in the dust on the desk.

“Well that’s no fun.”

“It’s in my mom’s underwear drawer.”

“That’s even _worse_ and _why do you know that_.”

“Because it’s something only I would know and they wouldn’t have to leave clues for. If my dad left a puzzle to solve anyone could feasibly do it. But only my parents and I would know about a place that they told me was meant for keeping important secrets.”

Kaito gave him a look to match the sort of creaking sound that was coming out of his throat. Shinichi stopped him before he could say anything coherent.

“Trust me on this one, Kaito. It wasn’t a euphemism to keep their young son out of their private lives. They made it very clear to me what they meant by it, and I’ve gone through that drawer before. I just didn’t have all the pieces until now.”

“Okay, but I could totally just pick these locks instead,” Kaito pointed out.

Shinichi gave him his blessing with a little wave and headed for the dark stairwell beside the slide. “I guess this is how we get back out again?” he said, tugging the flashlight from his coat pocket. He flicked it on and pointed it up the flight of stairs but it seemed to end in a wall at the top. “Uh…”

“Shinichi,” Kaito said, and his tone was urgent enough to draw Shinichi’s eyes back down from their dead-end exit. He went to Kaito’s side and looked over his shoulder at the file folder resting open on top of a line of others in the second drawer. The top page was a profile sheet with a photograph paperclipped to it of a man with a horrible horseshoe mustache and a black fedora.

“Snake,” Shinichi whispered. His hand immediately moved to rest gently on Kaito’s back.

“There’s nothing in his file about my old man. Did your dad not know, or…?”

“I… don’t think he’s been down here since Toichi-san died,” Shinichi said quietly. “The recording was definitely made before that. I assume he’d have updated it if he really wanted me to know the truth.”

“So he just gave up?” Kaito snapped the folder shut and shoved it back into its slot in the drawer.

“I don’t know. When I first got into the whole mess with Conan, my parents came back to Japan just to try to pull me out of it.”

“Yeah, to run away.” Kaito pushed the drawer closed and busied himself with each of the locks, three more on the left side and all four on the right, avoiding Shinichi’s eyes the whole time.

“Kaito,” Shinichi finally said.

Kaito’s shoulders drooped under his coat and he let out a heavy sigh. “Sorry. I’m being stupid.” He let his forehead drop against the cold metal for a few seconds then straightened up and tugged open a drawer just right of the desk. He froze with his hand hovering over the folders.

“What?” Shinichi moved closer and his eyes picked down the file tabs marked in bold black handwriting. He immediately reached for the one labeled “Gin” and dug into it but all that was inside was a blurry security camera screenshot and a few pages of sparse data. He pulled in a cold breath through his nose and slid the folder back into its slot. Kaito was watching him closely but when Shinichi reached for another folder marked “NOCs” he wandered back to the cabinets left of the desk.

Shinichi flipped open the folder. This one was also thin, containing only handwritten notes speculating on an unknown number of FBI agents undercover within the Organization. Frustrated, Shinichi shoved it back in and grabbed for Rum’s file but it said even less, only noting that Rum was the codename of someone high up.

Vermouth’s was larger. Inside were several pictures of an older Chris Vineyard, apparently going by the name Sharon at the time. There was no mention of Chris, but extensive information on Sharon. There was also a note at the end stating that several items could not be verified and that she was not to be trusted.

Shinichi sighed and plucked out the last folder that bore a label he recognized. There was a fair amount of information on Vodka and a clear picture, though he was wearing a hat and sunglasses. Most of the information covered several small-time crimes he seemed to be on the periphery of, as well as a number of companies that had confessed to being blackmailed by him after their misdeeds had been uncovered anyway. It would be worth reading more thoroughly later, but for now Shinichi’s head was still spinning with the suddenness of this entire room.

He was about to close the drawer when he spotted a folder in the middle with a name that tugged at his memory. He pulled it out and flipped it open. The label read Masuyama Kenzo, but the file mostly contained information on a car company that Masuyama was chairman of. It was the picture that sent a shiver of recognition through Shinichi. He grabbed for one of the desk drawers and took a pen, scrawling “Codename: Pisco. Deceased. Killed by Gin,” across the top of the first page. The last few pages contained speculation about monetary provision either from Masuyama to the Organization or from the Organization to Masuyama, but Shinichi didn’t bother to read too closely. He dropped the file back into the drawer and pushed it closed.

“Hey,” he said softly, coming up beside Kaito. He seemed to have been doing much of the same as Shinichi. The folder in his hands now contained a picture of a short, balding man with a mustache.

“I’ve run into this guy before,” Kaito said. He closed the folder and dropped it into its slot. “Snake called him ‘boss.’ He knew the whole Pandora legend and told Snake about it. Didn’t seem that competent though. Kind of weird that he was high enough up for that.”

“Anything useful?”

“Not really. There’s stuff in here about Spider and Rose too but it would have been more useful if I’d seen this _before_ running into them myself, you know?”

“Yeah.” Kaito still seemed off so Shinichi moved closer, tucking an arm around his waist and tipping his head against Kaito’s shoulder. “You okay?”

“…I feel really awful for the stuff I said when I found Snake’s file.”

Shinichi stood up straighter to look at him. “What?”

“I don’t… blame your dad for getting out of this. If he even _did_. And I don’t blame him for wanting to protect you. I’m _glad_ that your dad wasn’t killed like mine. I’d never want that.”

“Kaito, I know that. It’s fine; don’t worry about it.” Shinichi leaned in and kissed Kaito’s cheek. “Come on. Let’s leave this stuff for another time. We need to find a way out of this place.”

Kaito glanced over at him. “What do you mean? What about the stairs?”

“Yeah, I’m not so sure. Come here.”

Shinichi led the way up the dark stairwell by flashlight. There was a landing at the top but no door – only a wall, but the wall had a formula written on it. Shinichi let out a half relieved sigh. “Okay, now he’s just being weird.”

“The formula for calculating magnetic force?” Kaito said, passing his own light over the writing.

“He could have just written ‘push’ like a normal person. But I guess normal people don’t build secret rooms in the first place.” Shinichi handed his flashlight to Kaito and shoved hard on the wall. At first it didn’t budge but then he threw his shoulder against it and it suddenly released. Shinichi tumbled through the opening and Kaito shrank back from the cold wind that funneled through.

“Oh geez I didn’t realize how much that space heater was helping. Can we just stay down here until the power comes back?”

Shinichi got to his feet and shivered. “Yeah, actually. I like that plan.” But he reached into the stairwell and grabbed Kaito’s wrist, tugging him out into a short hallway on the first floor that Shinichi had always thought was a dead end. He closed the wall behind them and Kaito murmured a quiet whine. Shinichi ignored him. “So the wall is held tight by strong magnets and there’s no way to open it from this side since there’s nothing to grab onto to pull it,” he muttered. He gave the wall an experimental knock then knocked on the walls to the right and left of it. “It’s thick enough that it sounds the same. Not bad.”

“Shinichi,” Kaito said, huddling close against Shinichi’s back. “I thought you said you liked the plan. Why are we out here?”

“Because everything down there is covered in dust, Kaito,” Shinichi said, leading the way back upstairs. “Let’s grab a clean futon and some blankets and then we can go back down, okay?”

 

The trip down was much easier when they knew it was coming and they both managed to come out on their feet without sprawling into the dust again. Kaito ran to the space heater and unrolled the futon right beside it. Then he flopped facedown onto it and Shinichi dumped his armful of blankets on top of him. Kaito let out an embarrassingly long moan of appreciation. Shinichi just rolled his eyes.

“Did you see a light switch anywhere down here?” he asked, looking around.

“Motion sensors,” came the muffled reply.

“So if we lie here for a while the lights will turn off on their own… but so will the heat.”

A dismayed sound issued from the blankets.

“Then get up and help me circumvent that so we can sleep.”

Kaito emerged again with a grumble and joined Shinichi beside the generator. “Motion sensor’s here,” he said, pointing with a gloved finger. “It should be pretty simple to detach it and patch the circuit so that the regular on/off switch works again. Here, hold the flashlight for me. I need to cut the power while I work on it.”

Apparently highly motivated, Kaito had the motion sensor removed and patched in seconds and the heat and lights kicked back on. “The lights have their own sensor,” he added.

“I’m not worried about it,” Shinichi said. “They’ll turn off eventually.”

“Good.” Kaito burrowed back into the blankets but this time he graciously shifted to one side to let Shinichi in as well. Then he tugged the blankets over both of their heads and Shinichi suddenly found himself rather less clothed. Kaito had left him his socks and underwear but nothing else, and Kaito’s clothes had similarly gone missing, likely piled on top of the blankets for added warmth.

“Don’t you think this is overkill with the space heater right there?” Shinichi asked. It was pleasantly warm under the covers with Kaito now, but before long it would probably be too much.

“You got my hopes up for naked cuddles, Shinichi. You owe me.”

“I’m not getting naked in some dusty secret room packed full of information that could get any number of people killed while we’re under an indefinite power outage.”

“I know. That’s why we’re still wearing underwear and socks.”

Shinichi rolled his eyes again but they were still ducked under the blankets so it went unseen. “Shut up and sleep already,” he murmured, but there was a fondness to it and his arm slid over Kaito’s side as Shinichi wriggled closer. Kaito made a happy sort of humming sound and closed his eyes, nuzzling against Shinichi’s neck.

“Okay,” he murmured. “Good night, Shinichi.”

 

It was morning when they woke but they couldn’t have known it. The basement room had no windows – just the tiny red power light of the space heater, the bold orange power light of the electric strip, and the dull green power light of the generator as it droned through the silence. Still, it was light that woke them because at some point Shinichi had unconsciously decided that enough was enough and thrown the blankets off of himself. The motion triggered the overhead lights and then he and Kaito were both flailing with alarmed groans as Kaito ducked his head back under the blankets and Shinichi flung an arm over his eyes.

“Ugh, what time is it? Kaito, where’s my phone?”

“I don’t know. You probably sent it flying just now.”

Shinichi sighed and pushed himself to his feet. Their clothes were strewn haphazardly around the futon and he started picking through them until he found a phone. He prodded Kaito with his foot. “Hey, come on. It’s morning already. Let’s go see if the power’s back on.”

“How about…” Kaito drawled from his nest. “ _You_ go check and I’ll hold down the fort here.”

“How thoughtful of you,” Shinichi said flatly.

“I know. I’m great like that.”

“Well,” Shinichi replied, tugging on a dusty shirt from the floor. “The first thing I’m gonna do if the power _is_ back on is take a shower. You can join me or you can sit down here with your space heater.”

Kaito peeked out from the blankets. “You know I’ll always choose you,” he said with a definite pout.

Shinichi smiled down at him.

 

The power was on when they pushed through the wall in the first floor hallway. Kaito let out a heavy sigh of relief and draped himself over Shinichi’s shoulders.

“Finally. Let’s never do that again.”

“Not like we really had a choice, but I kind of agree. I’m pretty sure sleeping with a space heater on like that is a fire hazard. We’re lucky we didn’t burn the whole house down.”

“And after all that talk about how arson is illegal,” Kaito teased with a grin.

“Anyway, we should fix the motion sensor on the generator and maybe clean that place up sometime. Take a closer look at what was in all those files.”

“And update them,” Kaito agreed. “But for now…” He snuck a quick kiss against Shinichi’s cheek and then another against his neck. “You’re overdue for a _break_.”

“Heh. I can agree with that.” Shinichi took Kaito’s hand and led him up to the bathroom. “But you know,” he added as he closed the door and turned the lock. “I still don’t know how you did that card trick.”

Kaito spread his arms with a grin. “A magician never reveals his secrets, Tantei-kun. But please feel free to look for your answers on your own.”

Shinichi rolled his eyes again but he was smiling as he moved into Kaito’s space. He tugged him into a kiss as his hands worked on Kaito’s clothes, and he murmured against Kaito’s lips, “Don’t mind if I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Well that was fun. Happy birthday, Kaito~!


End file.
